Motorola Launches Moto X, Only From Rogers for $189 on 2 Year Term

The Moto X has landed today and its first stop in Canada is at Rogers. The country’s No. 1 carrier offers the handset exclusively for as low as $$189.99 with a two-year contract.

So what makes the Motorola different from the others? Well, since Motorola is now a Google company, this is the first Moto handset designed with Google’s direct oversight. Also, the Moto X is uniquely customizable.

The tech specs are impressive: it comes with a Snapdragon S4 Pro, with a 1.7GHz dual-core Krait CPU and a quad-core Adreno 320 GPU, alongside two unique Motorola processors, with one of them handling language interpretation so that Google Now won’t drain the battery.

Furthermore, Moto X sports a 4.7-inch 720p and 316 ppi AMOLED display, 2G of RAM and 16GB of storage and a 2,200mAh battery which aims to offer up to 24 hours of mixed usage. It also packs a 10MP Clear Pixel rear camera and a 2MP front-facing camera, shooting 1080p videos.

“You can control the Moto X with only your voice. No kidding. With Touchless Control, start by saying “OK Google Now.” Then, you can get directions, set an alarm or even ask it if you need to bring an umbrella with you and it will give you up-to-the-minute weather for your location. Did I mention you can do this without touching it at all? Awesome,” the Rogers press release highlights.

So far, the touchless controls work like a charm (even those this is technically non-final software). Once a brief setup process was completed, I successfully asked the X to give our video producer Steve a ring and do a Google search for “TechCrunch”. Meanwhile, a few vigorous shakes coaxed the X into firing up its camera, and flipping the thing over and over caused the active display to show off the time and how many messages I had waiting for me. And since Android is largely unencumbered here, whipping through pages of apps and scrolling through webpages was generally very smooth — though it could be smoother.

Since Rogers has more LTE network in the 2600MHz spectrum band than other Canadian carriers, the spectrum-compatible Moto X users will be able to benefit from the LTE speeds the carrier offers.

The Moto X will be available in black or white to Rogers customers this August for $189.99 on a two-year contract. Existing customers can reserve it using the Rogers Reservation System. Let us know if you are going to jump on this one.

If they can get a decent phone for the Ubuntu that would rock. If I was forced to get another phone, I would definitely get one of those or even a WP8. Android has to many issues and so many manufactures are not updating their os well.

I think this exclusively Rogers thing is BS. You should be able to in a bit order it out right from Moto, and I think they might even offer the custom config thing as well. But then again its still running Android so no matter how good the phone is it will run like crap

Simon B

The reservation “fee” is $40 + tax using the Rogers System Reservation. Really? What is the ‘fee’ for? Aren’t they supposed to be glad that customers are willing to sign for another 2-year agreement for the phone?
This is an example of why we need a real competitive market. So that the major carriers can’t charge Canadians an arm and a leg for standard services and try to squeeze every penny and dime out of their customers.

http://www.kizi10.info/ Kizi 10

With this price may say is pleasant, it could hopefully selling fast and good response from the users.

Mark

So google wants to know everything that I search for, text, watch, and now every word I ever say?? Now I’m really really going to need more tinfoil…

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/ Gary

I wonder if Google Now is always listening, despite the phone only responding to “Okay Google Now”.

Ya rogers does charge an arm and a leg but only because they offer services like out of warranty repairs and replacements which cost them 40 million dollars annually but not one person seems to appreciate. Not to mention how much rogers eats into its profits to cover people who get charged for things they aren’t aware of the market is plenty competitive and new companies just can’t make it because they won’t be able to cut into their profits as much as rogers does to keep customers who don’t know what they can do with what they’re paying for happy. As for customizability it’s only through AT&T that you can do that.